Tabletopping

I've been in San Francisco a little over three weeks now.  The nails have been pulled, the boards planed, the wood cut, the planks laminated, and now, at long last, desks and conference tables are taking shape.  It's been a good bit of work; not just the physical transformation of the ceiling joists, but design meetings, structural adjustments, and on-the-fly decisions.  It's also been nice collaborating with the Hattery team and Chris Currie, as they have informed, educated, and shaped the designs with their input. 


Every time I put hand to lumber, something comes together, from finger to brain and back, a long, sincere synaptic journey bridging idea and object.  This has been a true guerilla process, working in a basement, camping out on someone else's floor, living on takeout and sawdust and sketches.  Here's the latest dispatch from the front lines.  

Chris Currie, planetainin'.

Desk legs.

Lacking a jointer big enough to effectively square our longest boards, I hand-planed them.  Old school.

As shown in a previous post, we glued up the tables in halves; here's a shot of the "king joint" glue-up, as we joined two halves into one whole table top.  

Chris running cross-cuts on the legs to make notches.

Notched!

Chiseling out the chips.

Finished notches.

Taking a break on the twelve-foot conference table top.  

We routed notches in the bottom of the tables to accept the legs, adding a measure of stability.  

Routing a slot in the center of the table for cord management.

Setting a leg unit.

Chris peeking through the cord slot.  Mmm.  Nice chamfer, fella.  

Chris routing in a slot for the footrest bar.

Popping in the footrest/crossbrace at the bottom of the leg units.

Sad day.  Had that tape measure for seven years.

My grieving process was short.  It had to be.

The template for the legs for the conference table.  

Rough cut of the leg for the conference table.  

I clamped the legs together, then hand-planed them until uniform.  

Sawdusting.

Chris throwing a nice chamfer on the edges of the slabs.  Notice the stacks; four work tables, and a conference table leaning against the wall behind.  

Home sweet conference room.